From: servio!servio.slc.com!cohenb@uunet.UU.NET (Bruce Cohen) Subject: Re: APPS: Archaeology and virtual worlds - Visions Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1993 16:32:12 GMT Organization: Servio Corporation In <1vdg7mINNs85@news.u.washington.edu> "Steven C. Weintz" writes: >I think VR can be the greatest thing that ever happened >to my fields, archaeology and anthropology. When I think about >developing applications that will allow me walk through the streets of >Cuzco, the Inca capital, as it may have been in 1520, and be able to >switch between one scholar's interpretation and another in *realtime, >immersively*; when I imagine flying through a 3D matrix of >chronological and spatial relationships, or "stand" on a virtual >hilltop and watch the first cities of Sumer arise before my eyes, full >of colorful symbolic representations of the interacting processes of >human societies; when I dream working with my colleagues and our hosts >in trying to convey the intricate richness of another culture's >worldview; these, to me, are the sorts of uses to which VR can be >called. Seems to me VR would be invaluable at an active dig site too. If the site was mapped into a VR database, centimeter by centimeter if necessary (by computer digiitization of frames grab from a video camera?), it would be easy to step into the site and walk around it, testing out hypotheses about the use of rooms or traffic between buildings, and doing it fast enough that the excavation could be directed towards areas that look promising based on the hypotheses without having to leave the field. You could walk around in areas that were still buried in rock, and construct hypothetical structures to see what fits with the parts already excavated. Someday this VR database could be combined with non-invasive imaging techniques like tomographic sonar to build up images of the parts of the site yet unearthed, developing hypotheses even earlier in the excavation process. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Creditable arguments by respected scientists have led to the unfortunate conclusion that we cannot exist." - Stuart Kaufmann in "The Origins of Order" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce Cohen, Servio Corporation | email: cohenb@slc.com 14908 NW Greenbrier Pkwy, #100 | phone: (503)690-3602 Beaverton, OR USA 97006 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Creditable arguments by respected scientists have led to the unfortunate conclusion that we cannot exist." - Stuart Kaufmann in "The Origins of Order"